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Which major language branches belong to the Afro-Asiatic family?
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Afro-Asiatic languages
Distribution of the Afro-Asiatic languages.
Linguists generally recognize six major branches within the Afro-Asiatic language family. These divisions are:1
- Amazigh (also known as Berber)
- Chadic (which includes languages such as Hausa)
- Cushitic
- Egyptian (an extinct branch)
- Omotic
- Semitic (which includes languages such as Arabic, Amharic, and Tigrinya)21
While these six divisions are widely acknowledged, there is no universal consensus regarding the specific subclassification or the exact genealogical relationships between them, as the degree of kinship is considered quite remote. Some scholars have historically proposed different groupings, such as treating Omotic as a separate family or following models that suggest fewer coordinate branches.1